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Executive Outcomes
South Africa
Executive Outcomes is a paramilitary corporation based in the Republic of South Africa. It began in 1989 following the end of the Border War with Namibia and the Angola, and ended in 1999 with the passage of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act. Like many irregular army units, it can trace its beginnings to the slow disbanding of a larger military force. South Africa released elements of its army as a part of the treaty to end the war, leaving a number of highly trained soldiers looking for work. One of them, Eeben Barlow, founded Executive Outcomes along with British executives Tony Buckingham and Simon Mann as a means of employing many of his fellow ex-soldiers. His goal was to provide a “highly professional and confidential military service to legitimate governments,” helping to support activities against rebels and insurrectionists.
The track record is a little muddier. Executive Outcomes participated in operations during the Angolan civil war (aiding the government against communist insurgents) and Sierra Leone (battling the rebel forces backed by Charles Taylor, among others). But it also maintained relationships with a number of larger corporations: oil companies, mineral consortiums, and diamond companies like De Beers. Its connection to such companies remained shadowy and less than scrupulous. Critics often accused it of helping to plunder natural resources from failed states where it operated. It also kept nebulous connections to the South African government, sometimes blurring the distinction between an officially sanctioned military force and a privately owned corporation.
This last of element proved its undoing, when South Africa enacted the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act in 1998. It forbade the recruitment of mercenaries into private organizations and required all such organizations to gain the approval of the government before providing foreign military assistance. Executive Outcomes shut its doors, though thanks to it British connections, many operatives found new work in similar organizations elsewhere.
At its peak, Executive Outcomes employed about 4,000 trained soldiers, with perhaps another 500 employees serving in an advisory capacity. In addition to the brushfire operations outlined above, it engaged in training programs for various African military groups, bodyguard services for executives working in dangerous areas, and protection of “key assets” such as oil refineries and mining operations. It had access to a great deal of military equipment, including small arms, support vehicles, and high explosives. Members work in all parts of the world, though most operations took place on the African continent.
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 Posted by: Izan-Oen Mon Jan 20, 2014 @ 11:45am
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